That photo you see to the right is from one of the bedrooms in his Los Angeles area home that was converted into a shoe closet. Seriously. Then again what else was he going to do with hundreds and hundreds of Jordans. Our own D.J. Foster would pay rent to live in this room.

It may be the second most impressive shoe room I’ve ever seen a photo of. Seriously. Do you remember Joe Johnson’s old home in Atlanta? He had a custom-built 500-square-foot closet with a fingerprint sensor on the door to make sure nobody else got in.

Michael Jordan hasn’t suited up for an NBA game in seven seasons, and it’s been a dozen since anything meaningful (sorry Wizards fans). Yet Jordan and the Air Jordan line still have a virtual monopoly on the basketball shoe market.

So we bring you this sneak peak at the 2011 version — courtesy Counterkicks — complete with a description of the shoes.

Features a crafted and perforated leather upper along with mesh insets at the ankles and a mesh tongue. Underfoot an ice blue translucent rubber outsole with segmented flex points handle traction. The biggest tech story to the shoe is what appears to be a fully interchangeable insole with carbon fiber torsion midfoot support cradling either your choice of a full length Air unit or heel and footfoot Zoom Air.

Nike has said they want the Air Jordan lines to be more “handcrafted” and to take the other Nike shoes in a more futuristic direction. Well, here you go down that line.

Because these shoes will help you jump higher. Because of science. Here’s the official sales pitch from the company.

The technology itself features a unique device that serves as a “launch pad” housed inside a cavity at the front of the shoe, which compresses (The “Load” phase) and then releases (The “Launch” phase) as the athlete exerts force on the front of the foot….

In testing situations, athletes have experienced increases of several inches on their vertical leap wearing Athletic Propulsion Labs™ basketball shoes with the Load ‘N Launch™ technology.

Adding inches to my vertical? Man, I could finally clear that phone book.

Knowing I couldn’t write this story without testing out the shoes, I had the Goldstons send me a pair. On Monday, I took my basketball hoop down to eight feet and dunked wearing my Nike basketball shoes. Then I tried on the Concept 1’s. I didn’t measure it, and it could have been psychological, but I did feel like I had better “ups.”

So far, the buzz about the shoes has been confined mostly to the sneaker circles, but one thing can change that all: If the NBA decides to ban the shoes.